Woodside Market

The Woodside Market runs on the third Saturday of every month in the Woodside Institute Hall, 8am to 1pm, put on by the Rotary Club of Onkaparinga. It is a classic country market in the plainest sense: a hall, a monthly Saturday, free entry, and a stall list built from what the surrounding Adelaide Hills district produces.

Produce, baking and second-hand under one roof

The categories are fresh local produce, home-baked treats, arts and crafts, plants, second-hand items and books. That combination is what a country market does well and a specialised market cannot: someone comes for the vegetables and leaves with a book, and the second-hand stalls give people a reason to come back when the produce list has not changed. Woodside sits in the Onkaparinga Valley east of Adelaide, in the middle of a district known for its dairy, its orchards and its small food producers, and the hall is on the main road through the town.

Being indoors in an institute hall means the market keeps its shape through an Adelaide Hills winter, which is wetter and colder than most of South Australia and would thin out an open-ground market considerably. The listings that carry it describe it consistently as a classic country market with a community atmosphere, and the stall categories bear that out: this is produce, baking, craft, plants and second-hand goods rather than a curated maker roster, and the same combination has been the definition of a country market for a very long time.

Practical notes

Third Saturday, 8am to 1pm. Bring cash and bags, since a hall market with second-hand and produce stalls will include sellers who take neither card nor bag. Onkaparinga Valley Road runs through Woodside and there is parking along it and around the hall. The town is about forty minutes from Adelaide through the hills, and the surrounding valley makes an obvious continuation: this is cheese, cider and orchard country. This is Peramangk country.